The Anglo-Boer War17 Maalis 2019

Episode 78 - American blockhouses from Cuba and the enigma that was the pro-Boer John Tengo Jabavu

The ides of March were upon the British in South Africa as they continued chasing the ghost generals, Smuts, de la Rey, Beyers, de Wet across a cooling landscape that had begun its Southern Hemisphere Autumn in 1901. This week we’ll probe an American invention in Cuba called the Blockhouse chain as well as details of how journalist John Tengo Jabavu was publishing pro-Boer commentary against the wishes of both the British and most black intellectuals. We’ll return to his experiences later. The tactic of building a chain of forts is ancient, but the most recent examples before the Boer War came from the American War in Cuba. But this campaign had demonstrated that forts by themselves could not prevent guerrilla action and Lord Kitchener who was beginning to build them in South Africa knew that full well. Kitchener’s strategy therefore was to integrate the function of the fixed defensive units in fortified blockhouses with mobile attacking units on the drives. These began in January 1901, I’ve spoken about them in previous podcasts as the British tried herding or hustling the Boers into smaller areas of veld so that they could be overcome. Kitchener believed if the country could be divided into small areas by fortified lines, the Boers in each might be prevented from crossing to the next. His chessboard of maps across his HQ walls featured these regions with the addition of mobile columns that would be moved quickly by train from chess block to chess block while the blockhouses and barbed wire began to string out across the wide-open plains.

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Episode 39 - General Buller defeats the Boers at Allemansnek and enters the Transvaal

We’re up to episode 39, and we’re concentrating on the Natal front - or what was known as the Eastern Front. The Natal town of Ladysmith was relieved by General Sir Redvers Buller on 28 February 1900,...

17 Kesä 201826min

Episode 38 - Roberts marches into Pretoria but de Wet assaults Roodewal

For those who’ve followed this story from our start in October you know that we’re tracking the weeks of the war itself, and it’s now the first week of June 1900. This moment is what Lord Roberts has...

10 Kesä 201820min

Episode 37 - Johannesburg falls to the British

We are into week 37 of this series and Johannesburg lies before Lord Roberts’ army. But he’s using a Velvet Glove which in retrospect is one of the biggest bungles of his career. While he frets over t...

3 Kesä 201821min

Episode 36 - The Battle of Doornkop near Johannesburg & Churchill rides a bicycle

This episode is going to concentrate on the minutiae of the British army surrounding the city of Gold, Johannesburg. Its the city that was the main cause of this war with its gold and uitlanders or im...

27 Touko 201824min

Episode 35 - Mafeking becomes a verb

It’s been a brutal seven months but for the English, they are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Or so it appears, because as the joke goes, the light at the end of the tunnel could ...

20 Touko 201823min

Episode 34 - Crossing the Vaal and a Finishing Touch in Mafeking

The ongoing march north by Lord Robert’s army continues, and also swing around to Mafeking just before Plumer’s relieving force arrives because the Boers have a surprise in store for the towns’ comman...

13 Touko 201825min

Episode 33 - Lord Roberts takes Kroonstad & the Canadians march

Mafikeng is still besieged, but columns of British soldiers are advancing on the town from both the North and South. The Boers are falling back across both the Free State and Natal fronts. President S...

6 Touko 201820min

Episode 32 - The English swarm over South Africa

This is episode 32 - the English swarm over South Africa. I have borrowed the title from a Chapter in Christian De Wet’s book published in 1902 called "Three Years War" and this week we will prepare ...

29 Huhti 201824min

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